Inside the Houthi Smuggling Network: How Yemen's Rebels Built an International Axis with Hezbollah and Iran

What started as isolated smuggling operations by Yemen's Houthi rebels has turned into a network that stretches through Africa, senior Yemeni and regional security officials told The National as they revealed how the militants carefully built their routes. Over the past decade, the Iran-backed group has slowly transformed from a local armed faction into a wider force, threatening neighbouring countries and attacking shipping lanes while consolidating its control over the capital Sanaa and north-western Yemen.

But it is the Houthis' close relationship with Iran's main regional proxy, Hezbollah, that has taught them how to extend their reach beyond Yemen to diversify sources and resources while advancing Tehran's goals in new regions. The most important of those regions is the Horn of Africa. Recent reports revealed that Houthi ties with Al Shabab in Somalia and the Sudanese Armed Forces have led to arms-smuggling networks in the troubled region just a stone's throw across the sea.

“The Houthis' activity in the Horn of Africa is not only for obtaining supplies but also for expanding their arms distribution and sales in the region, as well as spreading Iranian agendas,” a senior Yemeni security official told The National. “Therefore, the Houthi presence and activity in Africa constitute one of the most important pillars of the Houthi movement's current supply chain,” he added.

The Houthis have an estimated troop strength, according to the US-based Middle East Institute, of 350,000, including child soldiers, forced-conscript African refugees and foreign mercenaries. The rebels rely primarily on cross-border smuggling networks and complex maritime supply routes that extend across the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea to secure a significant portion of their military and logistical needs, including weapons, drone components, ballistic missiles, and technology and equipment related to naval capabilities.

The Yemeni coast, particularly the western coast including Hodeidah, is strategically important for the group. It has served as one of its most crucial access and logistical support points since its takeover of Sanaa and state institutions in 2014.

Security sources said relationships with smugglers, intermediaries and organised crime networks, as well as elements and groups active on the African side of the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, were a vital component of the logistical support system. “Hezbollah taught them everything about cultivating relationships and building a network of spies and smugglers,” a regional security source told The National. “They do that mainly through money and exchange for services, like offering support with obtaining weapons and training.”

In 2024, the US reported continuing co-operation between Al Shabab and the Houthis. Furthermore, a UN report in 2025 revealed that the Somali militant group held at least two meetings with Houthi representatives in Somalia in July and September 2024, during which it was agreed that the Houthis would provide Al Shabab with weapons and technical expertise. In Sudan, where civil war has taken the lives of thousands and displaced millions, one of the most significant boosts the Houthis appear to have delivered is to the state-owned arms maker to develop its own attack drone, the Safaroog, according to a report by the Century Foundation published this week.